The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-10-13
sight of shrteking victims and dancing
hames was one never to be forgotten:
THE ENGINERR's STORY,

THE ENGINEERS STORY.
To-day,on his bed of agony at the Little
hotel, at Kout, the engineer of the
passenger train told the following story
OF the terrible disaster: ave passed No.
~ at Boone Grove on time, and started
towards Kout. No. 50 pulled out of the
station in less than two minutes, when
they should have waited much longer.
When we were well away from town we
could see her lights but little way
behind. We were not running very
fast because the engine was
on one side. We had broken
the eccentric strap, and were running but
ole pair of wheels, having been forced to
discounect the other pair, which were run
ming loose. OF course the accident had
our speed down a little, but we had no
idea that the engineer of No. 40 would
have any difficulty in keeping off Our
heels. At the time looked behind there
was ample room between Us. We stopped
at the Boon Grove water tank, and were
there almost minute before they struck
u.s."
Conductor Gsghspen was then forced
to leave for his train, and could ask NO
more particulars.
WHAT NIB. DUNCAN SAW.
CHICAGO, October 11.-Mr. w. A. Dun
can, of Syracuse, N. Y, arrived from the
scene of the accident. He saw the dead
in the wreck, eighteen or twenty in num-
Der, at which he places those known to
have been killed. A number of these were
burned before his eyes. Alittle Bohemian
boy was hemmed in, but not reached by
the fire, and saw his father, mother and
two sisters slowly roasting before his
eyes. He was dying as Mr.. Duncan left
There was doctor on the train. Mr..
Duncan says he lost his wife and daughter
in the burning wreck. He could do
nothing for them, and saw them encircled
by seething tongues of fire and cremated.
The night was dark and the scene was
dreadful. The rear coaches of the pas
seHgsr train were smashed and tele-
scoped 80 that three occupied less space
than one. Live Goals from the freight
engine ignited the debris, under which
the dead we're lying. Before substantial
assistance could be rendered, thirty peo-
pie had died. Some were mercifully
killed by the first shock, but many we're
slowly roasted to death. No one in the
Pullman sleeper was hurt. No means
existed for checking the fire, and only
after it had burned itself out was it pos
sible to do anything for the few still alive
imprisoned in the debris.
DIR. NEoKEa's NARRATIVE.
KoUT, October 11.-Thls afternoon
when the reporters, who had been long de-
layed in reaching Kout, knowing the
secretiveness of railroad officials, began at
last to arrive, there was little in the
aspect of the village to indicate the calam-
ity that had taken place. All the dead
bodies had been carefully removed from
sight. Only two wounded we're still in the
village, and the local employees of the
road were deaf to all seekers after in
formation. The coroner had been
obliged to go to Huntington, over fifty
miles distant, to obtain the statements of
witnesses, and the villagers seemed wholly
Rt sea about the extent of the dis
aster. About the only person able
and willing to tell the details of the hor-
hor was DR.. @. W. Nickle. The doctor is
prosperous looking, intelligent man of
about 81, who promptly responded in the
dead of night to the call that he take a
hand car and go to the scene of the
wreck, three miles from his residence.
DR.. Mckee rendered noble services. Ae
had scant time to give his experience in
DETAIL but stated that to the best of his
knowledge it would not be overstating the
ia cts to say that the collision had cost
the lives of fully thirty. 1t was
shortly after o'clock this morning when
he reached the wreck, and he Immediately
began to give his services to the wounded.
Those who were badly hurt VIII en- the
crash came, he says, must have had little
chance for their lives, SO quickly had the
cars taken fire and SO thorough was the
work of the flames. AS q demonstration
of the destruction and difficulty of ar
riving at a correct idea of its magnitude,
the doctor said probably not
soul would have been made
aware of the all but total wiping out o;
the Miller family of six, had not their boy
been saved.
DIR. Mckee stated that only nine bodies
had been recovered, and they were so
badly charred as to be almost beyond irec.
ognition, the most left of scarcely any
of them being blackened trunk, and in
some cases little beyond few handfulls
of ashes.
The nine were as follows:
The Miller family, of Dundee; father,
mother, two brothers and a girl. Their
14-year-old boy, Herman, will probably
die also.
DR.. Perry, of North Judson, Ind.
DR.. Perry's wife.
DR.. Perry's daughter.
A young Irish lady.
Superintendent Parsons, of the Chicago
& Atlantic, was seen late in the afternoon,
gloomily pacing the station platform. He
was extremely taciturn. He said no bodies
could be found under the wreck. Only
nine persons had been killed, he declared,
and not more than eleven or
twelve hurt, none of the latter
seriously. He admitted no fagman had
been sent back from the passenger train,
when the stop was made. Parsons said
the trainmen depended upon a light fully
1000 feet in the rear of where the stop
was made. The conductor of the train
had pulled the cord for this light when he
stepped from his train. This would throw
the glare of the red danger signal on the
track. The night, however, was foggy